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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1 35
fenses with big plays, especially in his later years at the
helm. He took what the defense gave him, but he also was
uncanny in figuring out how the defense was going to
line up in particular situations to exploit matchups.
DeMoss also wasn't afraid to ask for help if he couldn't
solve a problem. He called on former Purdue player and
coach Cecil Isbell to take a look at Griese's throwing mo-
tion. Griese was a baseball player, and his delivery was
too sidearm and not quick enough. It didn't take him
long, and Isbell was able to get Griese to release over the
top and quicken his release.
"DeMo may have not had all the answers, but he knew
how to find them," Griese said. "That correction changed
me as a quarterback, and the rest was history."
For Samuels, DeMoss' coaching style breathed confi-
dence into a young quarterback. DeMoss was legendary
for never laying blame on players. The week after Samu-
els led the Boilermakers to one of the most famous upsets
in school history, a 28-14 win at Notre Dame that ended
the Irish's 39-game unbeaten string, Samuels threw six
interceptions against Miami. It's still a school record
Samuels hopes (well, sort of) is never broken.
Samuels, only a sophomore, recalled being in fear
for his starting job. But DeMoss wouldn't contemplate a
change.
"He had a way of showing confidence in you," Sam-
uels said. "He just said, 'I am going to coach better this
week and you are going to play better.' And we got back
to work."
It was that simple, but it gave Samuels the sense the
team was all in this together. It influenced how Samuels
has managed his life every day since.
But there was much more to DeMoss than football.
With an omnipresent smile, he was the ultimate people
person who invested in relationships.
"The Bob DeMoss that people didn't always know was
the guy that visited me right after I was fired by the Colts,"
Meyer said about that regrettable day 26 years ago. "I get
fired and he is there for me and we found our way to the
golf course to get away for a bit. That meant everything to
me then, and means so much now.
"If you were a friend of Bob DeMoss, you were a friend
for life. He was just there for you. They just don't make
people like that much anymore."
Phipps echoed Meyer's sentiment.
"If there is one (word) for him, it is 'loyalty,' " said
Phipps, who along with Griese finished runner-up for the
Heisman Trophy under DeMoss. "I know Bob had other
opportunities to coach. Cleveland was highly interested
in having him come in to coach when I was there. I don't
know how it would have worked out, but sometimes mov-
ing to the professional level isn't always the right match.
He was gold and black to the core. I don't really know how
many players in history and coaches have remained at
the heart of the program for that many years."
DeMoss may have had no greater friendship than
what he enjoyed with Samuels. The two met when Sam-
uels was a freshman in 1949, DeMoss' one-year attempt
to make an NFL team had resulted in him returning to
Purdue. Samuels was the first in the line of DeMoss' Boil-
ermaker pupils.
"He has been my friend for 67 years," said Samuels,
who somehow kept it together emotionally to eulogize
his buddy at the funeral. "We had so much fun together
over the years and told so many stories. It got to the point
that our wives would number the stories. We would be at
dinner and start up with a tale and Dawn (Samuels) and
Janet (DeMoss) would look at each other and say, 'Well,
that's story No. 15.'
Tom Campbell
Bob DeMoss was rarely seen without a smile on his face, and he
loved his association with Purdue athletics in the fourth quarter of
his life.